Bellamy quickly closed the distance between them and caught Clarke as she collapsed. He brought her into his arms and noticed how hot she felt. Her eyes flickered open a few times before they finally remained shut and her body went fully limp in his arms.
"Here, put her here." He looked to see Octavia clearing off a table next to Jasper. She folded some rags for a pillow and stepped back. Bellamy walked over and gently set Clarke down. The girl moaned slightly, but her eyes remained shut.
"What's wrong with her?" Jasper asked a bit frantically.
"I don't know." Bellamy scanned her for any sign of something wrong. It took him a couple seconds before he saw the dark red splotch on her side. It was easily missed because she was still wearing the same shirt she had been the day before and it was covered in the blood of those she had treated. Cursing to himself he slowly lifted up her shirt. He heard Octavia gasp when he revealed the long cut, it was oozing blood and had angry red lines shooting out from it. Bellamy looked closer and saw that it had at one point been stitched up, but Clarke had ripped open all of the stitches. "You stupid girl," he said under his breath.
"It looks infected" Octavia, who had gotten over her initial shock, said as she examined the wound.
"Get me a cloth, moonshine, Monty's tea, needle and thread, and bandages," Bellamy instructed his sister. He was trying hard to remain calm and objective. He had sewn up injuries before and he tried to tell himself that this time was no different. Except it was different, because it was Clarke. She was his co-leader, their doctor, the voice of reason, their strength. He needed her. He didn't know how to keep this camp together without Clarke by his side. Bellamy reached down and brushed hair off of her cheek and stroked it gently with his thumb. "C'mon, stay with me Clarke." He whispered. "I need you to fight this". He put a hand against her forehead and felt heat radiating from it.
"I got everything," Octavia said as she bounded back into the ship with Monty at her heels.
"Let me see" Bellamy moved back to allow Monty to look at Clarke. "It doesn't look too bad, I think if we clean it and give her some tea it should be okay." Bellamy breathed a little easier at his words. He could do this, Clarke was going to be okay, it was all going to be okay.
"Here Bell," Octavia said holding the thermos of moonshine out. He held out his hands and she doused them. Then he took a rag and began gently trying to clean off the wound. He then pulled out the sad remains of her stitches. Once all the dried blood was away the cut looked considerably better. It wasn't bleeding too much and Bellamy thought that it might not need stitches.
"Here help me give her the tea." Bellamy lifted up Clarke's head and opened her mouth. Monty lifted the cup to her lips and poured the liquid in. Bellamy pinched her nose so she would be forced to swallow. "C'mon Princess, swallow." He urged her, but instead she coughed, spitting out the tea. Her body shook violently as she continued to cough.
"Get her on her side." Bellamy looked up to see that Murphy had appeared. He ran forward to help Bellamy roll her on her side. Clarke continued coughing as blood came out of her mouth. When her coughs had subsided they rolled her onto her back. Bellamy cleaned the blood off of her face with a cloth. Octavia was brushing back her hair, Monty was stroking her arm, Murphy had his hand on her leg, and Jasper was craning frantically to see what was happening. Bellamy was struck suddenly about how fiercely everyone cared for Clarke. He had been so caught up in how much he needed Clarke that he hadn't realized how much everyone else needed her too.
"We have to get her to drink this." Monty said.
"Okay" Bellamy agreed. They tried again to give Clarke this tea and this time succeeded in getting her to drink it. "Thank God," Bellamy said as he gently placed Clarke's head back on the table. He stepped back and wiped the sweat from his brow.
"Bell…" He turned to his sister and then followed her gaze to Clarke's side. Her coughing fit had caused the wound to open up and blood was now flowing from it.
"Look's like I'll have to sew it up, after all." Bellamy sighed and got to work. When he had finished he stepped back to admire his handiwork. He was suddenly thankful for all of the times he had helped his mom mend clothing.
"Is she going to be okay?" Jasper asked from behind him. Bellamy turned to offer the boy a small smile.
"Clarke's strong. We've done all we can do for her, now we just have to let her body fight off the infection. I think she's going to be okay." Bellamy really hoped his words would turn out to be true. They all needed Clarke to pull through this.
"She's a fighter, she will make it." Octavia said. They all looked up when Miller ran inside.
"I heard Clarke was sick," He said breathlessly his gaze falling on her unconscious form.
"It seems our Doctor let a cut on her side get infected." Bellamy told him. "We gave her some tea and stitched it up, she should be okay."
"Clarke let something get infected? But she's always so careful about that. She always makes sure we drink the tea even if we get a tiny scratch." Miller said in disbelief.
"She hasn't stopped moving in the past few days, I think she was so caught up in helping everyone else that she neglected to take care of herself." Bellamy responded.
"How did she cut herself?" Murphy asked. Bellamy looked around at everyone's blank faces and shrugged his shoulders.
"No idea, we'll have to ask her when she wakes up."
"FOOD'S READY" They heard someone yell from outside. They all turned to Bellamy for an indication of what to do next.
"Go, get some food. There is nothing more we can do until her condition changes. I'll stay with Clarke and Jasper. If someone could just bring us some food that would be great." They all nodded and began to file out. Octavia stopped to kiss Clarke on the forehead, then she came over and kissed Bellamy on the cheek.
"She's going to be okay" She whispered.
"I hope so O" he whispered back. When they had all left Bellamy pulled over a crate to sit on and took Clarke's hand, not caring that Jasper was there to see. He looked over to see the boy lying flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling. "Sorry we weren't able to get around to fixing you up a better brace." He said and Jasper turned to look at him.
"It's okay, Clarke's more important."
"We'll get you fixed up tomorrow."
"Good, because I am going a little stir crazy here." Jasper muttered and Bellamy chuckled.
"Did someone order some deer?" Murphy said as he came in carrying three sticks with meat skewered on them. He handed one to Jasper, one to Bellamy, and settled on a crate with the third. The three boys ate in companionable silence, each enjoying their food and simply being together. When they had finished Bellamy felt Clarke's forehead. She still felt warm so he wet a cloth and placed it on her forehead. Murphy then helped him give her more tea just to be safe. Miller, Monty, Octavia, and Raven all came into the dropship a while later with blankets and stuff to sleep on.
"What are you all doing?" Bellamy asked, quirking an eyebrow at the group.
"Well, we figured you were going to spend the night in the dropship with Clarke, so we thought we would keep you company." His sister responded. Bellamy shrugged nonchalantly, but he was glad they were all there. Especially because their chatter helped distract him from the girl sleeping next to him. Had he been alone he probably would've spent the whole time worrying and dwelling on things that didn't need to be dwelled on.
After a while everyone slowly fell asleep, everyone except Bellamy that is. He simply couldn't get his mind to quiet down. He looked around at the teenagers sprawled around the ship. They had so quickly become like a family to him. On the Ark he only had his mother and his sister to care about, then he only had O. It was such a weird feeling to have so many people who cared about him and relied on him.
His gaze fell on Clarke. She relied on him and he had let her down. He had noticed that she wasn't herself these past few days, yet he had let her continue. He should've been observant enough to notice she was hurt. She may have hidden it well, but he was sure if he had looked hard enough he would've been able to notice it. Bellamy put a hand against her cheek to feel it's temperature. With a sigh of relief he noted that her fever had broken. Clarke shifted slightly and leaned against her hand. A small groan escaped her lips.
"Clarke?" Bellamy asked, stroking her cheek instead of pulling it away like he might have a few days ago.
"Bell…? What?" She started weakly.
"You had a cut on your side that you let get infected. You passed out earlier today." Bellamy answered the question before she finished asking it. He saw the confusion in her eyes clear.
"Crap" She groaned
"Crap is right. And when you are feeling better you and I are going to have a nice long chat about self preservation and how we can't let our only doctor die because she won't take care of herself." Bellamy's tone was a bit harsher than he intended.
"I'm sorry" She said simply. Bellamy took her hand and gave her a smile.
"We can talk more tomorrow. Right now you should get some more sleep."
"Okay" she said, but her eyes remained locked on his.
"So, uh, how did you cut yourself anyways?" He said, trying to distract himself from the sudden ridiculous urge to kiss her.
"Couldn't reach the top shelf...I climbed up, but it broke. I fell on a piece of metal." Clarke said with a wince. Bellamy was pretty sure she was wincing more out of embarrassment than the memory of the pain.
"Clumsy Princess." He leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead. Her eyes fluttered shut and remained closed when he pulled away, but her hand tightened in his when he started to let go. He resumed his grip and sat beside her for the rest of the night. Even after both of them had fallen asleep, their hands remained grasped.
A/N
Thanks so much for reading this story! I may be adding another chapter to finish it off a bit better if there is enough interest